Death sentences for SPLM-N leaders in Sudan

The Special Court in Singa, capital of Sudan’s Sennar state has sentenced 17 members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) to death by hanging in absentia. Among those sentenced are Malik Agar, the SPLM-N chairman, and chairman of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of opposition groups), and Yasir Arman, the Secretary-General of the SPLM-N and SRF Foreign Relations Secretary.  The verdict by the Court, headed by Judge Abdel Munim Yunis, ends a nine-month trial, and comes three days after the latest AU Peace and Security Council  statement calling on SPLM-N to accept the latest draft framework paper for a solution to the conflicts in Blue Nile and South Kordofan. Arman was heading the SPLM-N delegation in the recent negotiation rounds with the Sudanese government. Forty-six other detainees were sentenced to life imprisonment  while 31 were acquitted, lawyer El Tijani Hassan, member of the Sudanese Organisation for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms told Radio Dabanga from state capital Sinja. Those sentenced are among about 100 detainees who faced trial for alleged involvement in the ‘insurgence’ in Blue Nile that started in September 2011. About 170,000 people fled from the Blue Nile into neighbouring Ethiopia and South Sudan. File photo: Yasir Arman, Secretary-General SPLM-N Related:’Sudan government, SPLM-N to reach agreement by 30 April’: AUPSC (12 March 2014)’Unified platform only way out for Sudan’: SPLM-N (21 February 2014)’SPLM-N will discuss AUHIP proposal’: Malik Agar (19 February 2014)